Vettori, Dolidze renew their rivalry

Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze will renew their rivalry in the middleweight main event of a UFC Fight Night, set for the Apex Facility in Las Vegas on Sunday morning.

Vettori (19-7-1) and Dolidze (14-3) met in March 2023 at UFC 286 in London, England, with the former claiming a unanimous decision triumph.

Vettori has since been beaten by unanimous decision by Jared Cannonier in his most recent trip to the Octagon in June 2023.

The 31-year-old ‘Italian Dream’ spent 2024 on the sidelines, partly due to injury – notably withdrawing from a fight with Brendan Allen in April of that year – but he’s happy to be back in action, even if it’s against an opponent for whom he had a case of mistaken identity.

Vettori thought he had signed on for a clash with Roman Kopylov, not a rematch with Roman Dolidze!

“This whole time I thought it's Roman Kopylov, but it's actually Roman Dolidze," Vettori explained on social media. "All good... different last name, same result.”

Dolidze, meanwhile, has secured back-to-back wins over Anthony Smith and Kevin Holland in his last two matches.

“Every day I am learning something about myself, about the sport, about everything and I am changing,” said the 36-year-old Georgian. “I am more well-rounded now, probably.

“But though I came from grappling, I don’t have wins by submission in my career [in UFC], but I have so many knockout wins. Which is why I would say that I am still trying to get better in every aspect of the sport.”

The rest of the main card features a welterweight clash between Chidi Njokuani and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos; bantamweight fights pitting Da’Mon Blackshear against Cody Gibson, and You Su-young agaimnst AJ Cunningham; Choi Seung-woo v Kevin Vallejos in the featherweight division; and a lightweight clash between Alexander Hernandez and Kurt Holobaugh.

UFC Fight Night: – Main card

- Main event: Middleweight: Marvin Vettori v Roman Dolidze

- Welterweight: Chidi Njokuani v Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos

- Featherweight: Choi Seung-woo v Kevin Vallejos

- Lightweight: Alexander Hernandez v Kurt Holobaugh

- Bantamweight: Da’Mon Blackshear v Cody Gibson

- Bantamweight: You Su-young v AJ Cunningham